Redefine Weird

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Friday, May 15, 2015

You know, it would be great if you had a child that adored you adamantly—when you give that child to others only to have them cry because they love you! Yeah, I use to think that. Do not get me wrong: it is great to have a child that loves you—one of the best things in the world.

But maybe every several months, you would like to go out with a significant other, the one who kind of helped you bring this child into the world, and focus on each other for once instead of going out to eat only to be conscience of your child's every noise in light of everyone around you. And of course, for once in your life, you realize that people eat around you, and that your child's noise seems to be apparent to every single one of them.

Also, perhaps you can imagine another child that loves to play with you and this significant other who also may have had something to do with bringing this child into the world. A very playful child for sure—do you want to eat a a nice and yummy restaurant? No? You want to play? Okay! Do you want to sit for 30 seconds like that other child across the restaurant has been doing for the last 30 minutes? No? You just want to play? Okay! Apparently you cannot train children to act appropriately. Everyone in the restaurant seem to wonder why you cannot control this child. You must need some sort of classes or something.

Of course, you would not want to change a thing with these children. You love them and would do it over again, but it does change your perspective. It makes you appreciate that period of time when it was just you and your significant other. I also think that the time these children grow up and leave house will make you appreciate the time they were growing up and could not do a thing without you helping them. God gives you blessings in each period of life. Children are one of the biggest blessings that comes to my mind. A significant other who may have had a little do with bringing these little clones into the world is also one of the biggest blessings in my life. And if all those fail, Jesus Christ who never fails is the biggest blessing of all that God has given me. I praise God for all that He has done for me.

Saturday, August 9, 2014

Writing about the first thing that comes to your mind is a terrible idea—particularly when someone else suggests it and then proceeds to give you several ideas. First of all, why even mention more than one idea if you are supposed to just write about the first one? Secondly, what if I do not want to write about your idea? Of course, my ideas are not good either, so I am in a pickle either way.

Typing of pickles, have you ever noticed that a pickle is a difficult situation, but it can also be a preserved food such as cucumbers? I think that means we all know pickles, the preserved cucumbers, are nasty, but no one wants to admit it. In fact, they are so biased towards them that most people, at least in America, think they love them. Now that is a pickle!

What did you say? You think it is a bad idea to write about how bad pickles are? You say it is a bad idea particularly when your readers like pickles? Well, you may have a point, but it was the first thing that originated from my mind, and I warned you that my ideas are not good either. However, here is the lowdown: ideas that originate from my mind flow into blog posts better than ideas outside my mind.

For example, I will ask a person I know for a random idea—calling on the phone right now. Okay, here is the idea from the person I called: my mother is the most awesome person ever. Now let the flowing of the blog post begin. Hmmm, I bet you cannot guess who I called! You know, I am kind of struggling to know how to approach this topic. It may be that ideas from my own mind do, indeed, flow better. Yep, this blog posts is definitely at a standstill.

Now, this could be the place where all the nice things about my mother could be written—but it is not Mother’s Day, so I do not want to waste time on that. Just kidding! Yes, my mum is the best ever (I have to type that, as she may be reading).

As you may have noticed, I was able to write some stuff, but it was more disjointed and tougher to continue to type in a consistent manner, so writing ideas from my own mind do work better for me. However, when I write about ideas from my own mind, they cannot be forced. When I try to write about forced ideas from my own mind, it can result in the same problem as ideas from outside my mind. The ideas must come naturally. Why? Because that is the way it seems to work with me.

Will this approach work for everyone? Well, can you come up with ideas naturally? If not, then definitely not. If so, then maybe. And what I mean by naturally is, here you are typing on your blog and then BAM!!! IDEA ALERT! “Wow! I cannot believe I thought of that idea. The typing of the fingers just keeps rolling. I know what I am going to type about next. This is amazing!”

Warning: natural ideas are not always the best ideas, but they do tend to flow from your mind easier. What if you have nothing in your mind to begin with? Well, then read my blog and fill up your mind, and then let the ideas and typing flow! Will that work well? Probably not because my ideas are usually weird and so random that most people read my stuff and go, “What? This guy is weird.” Now, I am not saying that is a bad thing, as it works for me, but I do admit that it may not work for you.

If you want some perfect ideas, read God’s Word. He has called us to be a special people for Him—to be set apart from the world. Being different, or weird, is not a bad thing in this case! Here is a relevant passage on filling up your mind:

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:1).

Sunday, February 16, 2014

My dad recently debated Bill Nye, and I would be remiss if I did not give my thoughts. On a side note, this is the first time I ever used the word "remiss" on this blog! I would be remiss if I did not use the word "remiss" on this blog. Anyway, let my cover a few of the basics first.

Who Won?

Ultimately, God has already won, and there was never any doubt that He would not. This is a spiritual battle (Ephesians 6:12). Basically, God our Creator made Adam and Eve in a perfect world. He told them they could eat of every tree but one—otherwise they would have the knowledge of good and evil and also die. So what did they do? They ate of that one tree. Sadly, it reminds me of myself.

Ever since the serpent deceived Eve in the Garden of Eden and both Adam and Eve ate the fruit (Genesis 3), sin has entered the world, and we have been struggling ever since. In Adam (our representative if you will), we are all sinners against a perfect, holy God (Romans 3:23; Romans 5:12), and the punishment is death. If you have not, I encourage you to read the Bible, starting at the beginning, at Genesis 1–11 for the details.

Praise be to God, He promised in Genesis 3:15, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel." The Seed of the woman, our Lord Jesus Christ (the Son of God), became the perfect sacrifice to satisfy the wrath of a perfect and holy God. 1 Corinthians 15:22 states, "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive," and 1 Corinthians 15:57 states, "But thanks be to God, who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

But who do I think won on the debate considering all the arguments from both sides? That is an extremely easy and quick answer. My dad! Am I biased? Why yes! But, I might add, that you are too! And that leads me into my next topic.

Bias on Both Sides

Watching the debate, you can clearly tell that both sides have a bias, which my dad explained and Mr. Nye tried to ignore. This is ultimately a spiritual matter. You can either accept God's Word as truth or not. You can try to be neutral on spiritual matters, but as Jesus Christ said, "He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad." This debate on creation vs. evolution is really a spiritual matter that has been going on in similar forms ever since Genesis 3.

My dad's bias starts with God's Word. Mr. Nye's bias starts with man's word, believe it or not. Explore the bias of Mr. Nye and other skeptics for yourself. They do not believe God exists and believe in a naturalistic worldview as a way of explaining a world without God. As they strive to understand the world, they using their naturalistic bias to explain the world. As they strive to confirm their worldview through science, they will make assumptions based on their worldview just as others who believe the Bible would with their worldview.

On a similar note, I have been watching the tv show Mythbusters, and it is very interesting. They use science to determine if various myths are true, feasible, or not. The problem is that these myths do not always give all the variables, so the hosts who have a lot of experience have to make certain assumptions. There have been a number of myths they have tested and claimed they are "busted" that left me thinking they did not try all of the variables. It is clear that when you are trying to figure out something about the myths or even the past, you have to make certain assumptions!

Will the Evidence Convince You?

Mr. Nye called for one piece of evidence to convince him, and my dad said that nothing would convince him. For believers, we have the truth of God's Word, which is the authority in every area of life. Of course, nothing would (or should) ever convince us otherwise. Would one piece of evidence really convince the skeptics?

Well, as my dad said, "There is a book ... " God gave us His testimony through the Bible, and "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God" (Romans 10:17). Why do they not consider the clear evidence sitting right in front of them? How about also considering how "the heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork" (Psalm 19:1)? The answer is because it is a spiritual matter. They know God exists (Romans 1:20–21), but they "suppress the truth in unrighteousness" (Romans 1:18). They are willingly ignorant (2 Peter 3:5).

Conclusion

I cannot help but think of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19–31). Both the rich man and Lazarus had died. It was too late for the rich man—he did not believe until after he had died. He pleaded with Abraham, "Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame" (Luke 16:24). Abraham responded, "Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented" (Luke 16:25). Consider what conversation took place next between the rich man and Abraham:

Then he said, "I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment." Abraham said to him, "They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them." And he said, "No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent." But he said to him, "If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead." (Luke 16:27–31)

Skeptic are crying out for one piece of evidence, but what if a person was raised from the dead like this passage states? Would they believe then? Well, someone was raised from the dead: our Lord Jesus Christ! And still people refused to believe those many years ago. It is not for a lack of evidence as to why so many do not believe. It is a heart issue, a spiritual issue. I plead with those who do not know the Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior to read God's Word and explore it for yourself. See how it makes sense of the world. And most of all, see how it can save you from the upcoming judgement.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotton son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Let us say you see a big monster in the deep, dark forest with nothing around for as far as you can see, which is not that far considering the forest is deep and dark. I say dark because it is and deep because I hear it a lot on the movies and the word sounds cool when associated with a forest. So what are you doing in such a forest, and is it not a little silly to be in such a place? Why yes it is, but I needed an example for this post to answer whether you should truth your feelings or not, so please entertain the thought of you being ignorant enough to be in this forest. So what should you do when you see such a monster?

First of all, what does your Guidebook on Monsters say about this situation? Even if you did have such a book, you probably would not have time to look up the answer. Furthermore, if you are anything like me, even if you read the answer in the book, you probably would not remember it. With all that typed, you basically have no knowledge of what to do, so what other authority should you turn to? Maybe you should consider what else you have with you.

Well, did you bring your feelings with you? If so, what do you feel? Do you feel fear? Maybe the fear is telling you to get away from the monster as fast as you can. Okay, you better run! Now that you are running, you think to yourself, maybe my feelings were telling me to hide instead. Oh well. It is too late now.

So when you think are away after running awhile, you find yourself in a dark, cold, muggy place—entirely different type of atmosphere than before. What is this place? It is very weird, and I am not sure it is a good weird. Your feelings tell you that it could be a pond because there is water here. Then you hear a gurgling, and the water feels a little acidic.

The monster you were running away from likes to play with his food, and he likes to see his food run, which is why he let you run. This particular monster has very good senses, and he sensed you right away, so of course, hiding would not have worked. Unfortunately, he is an even better runner, so yes, you guessed it (if you did not, then, no, you did not guess it), you are in the monster’s stomach!

Do you get out alive? What will happen if you do not get out of the monster? For this blog post, I am not here to write stories, but I am here to write an example to help answer the question "Should you trust your feelings?" So what does that mean for the end of this story? Well, the answer to the question of what happens next may be forever left unwritten.

You might say that who knows this story might have ended well because the monster was actually a good monster and ate you because there was a bigger monster about to eat you, and he was bad. Since the good monster ate you, the bad monster was like, "Oh well. I tried." Then he left. The good monster spit you out, and you became lifetime, close friends.

However, since I am the story designer, without giving the ending away, I do type that the monster was bad and wanted the acid in his stomach to digest you. Sorry.

You might also say that maybe there is no right answer, and you would get eaten anyway whether you trusted your feelings or not. While that may be true in certain situations, I want to point out that you jumped to a decision before evaluating every choice—and it would have only taken several seconds longer. You could have hidden—of course, that was wrong too. If you would have taken the time to look at the monster and use your critical thinking, you would have seen him already notice you and that he is so built for speed, so you could have ruled out the options from your feelings. And if you quickly glanced around, you would have noticed a small cave behind you (the moon had conveniently come out and was shining on it). If you had gone into that cave and waited out the monster, you would have survived because the cave opening was smaller than the build of the monster.

Now you might say, you only setup this scenario to prove that trusting your feelings are wrong, but it does not prove a thing! Well, first, I want to answer the question "Should you trust your feelings?" Second, I never typed what I wanted to prove. I would just like to show that feelings are unreliable. While this scenario may seem unlikely, you never know what could happen, and you have to admit, it could take place (possibly substituting the monster for a real creature). With that typed, I believe this example does help show that feelings are unreliable.

However, if that is not enough, let us consider what the truth of God's Word states. The wisest person that ever lived, King Solomon, wrote, "A fool vents all his feelings, But a wise man holds them back" (Proverbs 29:11). In other words, a wise man thinks and examines before "venting," which I believe can also apply to our situation to a certain degree. So you should have thought and examined the situation before relying on your entirely on your flood of feelings. So now you say, you set me up for failure by putting me in this example! But I type, well, you decided to read it. Okay, maybe you never said any of those things that I typed of you saying, Oh well. Hopefully the point still comes across.

With all that typed, if you had relied on your critical thinking in the first place, you probably would not have been in the deep, dark forest. We all make mistakes though. (This thought was generously donated by an unnamed person after I forcibly and nicely read the blog post to them.)

For now, maybe you can write a suggested ending to the story in the comments with the parameters I have given. Who knows, I may even include your ending in this blog post, and that is an amazing thing because of all the popularity I do not get. However, some of my family members may read, so you can always hope! Thanks for reading,

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

As I have mentioned in My Clone Army Has Begun post, my assistant and I have built a clone after us. We decided to not give him a growth serum, but let him grow normally. His name is Josiah. I like to call him Jose—unlike the Spanish pronunciation, the "J" is pronounced. The best way to describe Jose at this point is that he likes technology, is very inquisitive, is shy, likes to laugh (the tough part is getting him to laugh—my assistant and I have figured it out though), stubborn (like me), and is very adorable—of course, I am biased.

My Blog post When Will Weird No Longer Be Weird gives the goal for our clones where we gave the hint of our next clone, and she is well on the way. We have decided to call her Amelia, and her official nickname, as official as it can be, is Ella. However, she also has been dubbed with Boo—thanks to the way we announced her to others. We used a Boo doll from Monsters, Inc., and the name stuck! Of course, we could have used glue remover to unstick the name, but we liked the name. It is too early to describe Amelia, but we already know she will be beautiful and great like my assistant.

Now you might be thinking okay, whatever, this is boring. Then I might ask, well, why did you continue reading? How about leaving before getting to this point? You might reply, I just got bored when you figured out that I was bored, which interested me to keep reading to see what you would say about my boredom. Furthermore, you say that it is amazing that you have predicted everything I would think—it is almost as if you are putting these thoughts into my head with your put-thoughts-into-your-blog-readers-mind machine. To which I would respond, wait, how did you know I had such a machine?! However, I would catch myself and use my erase-the-news-of-my-put-thoughts-into-your-blog-readers-mind-machine machine.

So where were we? Oh, you forgot? That is okay—I forget all the time too, as my mind does not remember much at all. However, I have not forgotten our clones Josiah or Amelia. Besides hiring my assistant, they were two of the best decisions ever! Where do we go from here? Only God knows, and we will continue to strive after Him for wisdom and guidance.

Before closing, here is a word from my assistant:

I look forward to the new addition of this clone in our group.

[Insertion from Jeremy: I am waiting for my assistant to provide more, but for some reason, she is nervous to be writing in front of my many, many blog readers. Of course, I just reminded her that almost all of my blog readers are just my family—if that. In fact, it might only be me reading it from multiple devices as I try to increase the pageview stats to make myself feel like it is worth writing these things. Okay, now I feel like I have hijacked my assistant’s word. Sorry about that. Moving on.]

Our first clone Josiah has taught me so much, and I love being part of his life. I loved how Jeremy described him, and I would add that Jose is soft hearted. He loves to please and does not like to see us sad. Since I am a girl assistant, I really look forward to my new girl clone who I can teach and share my life and experiences like princesses, horses, and beautiful dresses. It was really hard to choose a name, but we are really excited about the name Amelia for our sweet new clone. :-)

Sunday, January 19, 2014

I am a no good ham-stuffed pig of a person! Get it? My last name is Ham, and I said ham-stuffed pig of a person? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha—I crack myself up! ... Uh oh, look, my arm just fell off due to the cracking. I am falling apart. Hmmm, what other names can I use to make fun of me?

Of course, there is WeirdHamster—my official nickname. It is official because I typed it in a blog post just now—therefore, it is official. There are other names that can be made up from the last name of Ham. Some which have been made up by others to refer to me or others like me (that is, those with the last name of Ham). Hamster or hambone tend to be popular ones, but there are many, many options.

So where I am going with this? Well soon I might go to the food store because I am getting hungry. I wonder what I would buy ... Hmmm, I could buy some ... HAM! Excuse me, Mr. Checkout Person, I want to buy myself. Why? Because my last name is Ham! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! So funny!!!

Have people ever made fun of the last name of Ham before? Why yes they have. Not necessarily to me (though I have a terrible memory), but I have seen it done. I have seen it done mostly as a joke and laughing with the person, but I have also seen it done as a serious criticism—they actually tried to use it to make the person feel bad (because they had nothing good to argue with so all they were left with was name calling). But who can feel bad with the name of Ham? Ha ha! it is funny!!! Please do not say my last name, as I might just burst out laughing in front of you and that might be awkward.

So anyway, where was I? Oh, that is right, HAM! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Oh, I just thought of a new name. I was thinking about maniacal laugh because the Muppets are cool, and if you do not know what I am typing about, then you are missing out. Sorry. So what about maniacal ham?!?!?! Ha! The combination of two funny things make one extremely, absolutely hilarious thing! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!! Maniacal ham... maniacal ham. Ha ha! It works! I like it!

And so, I will leave you with the best criticism of the last name Ham of all. Maniacal ham! Oh yeah.

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

This has probably happened to you as well, but my deodorant recently ran out. Yes, the deodorant became alive, grew legs, and ran out. So what happens when this seemingly impossibility happens to you? Running after it could be embarrassing because of the sweating and stink—the very things the deodorant is used to protect against. Of course, now one might realize why the deodorant ran out in the first place—who wants to protect anyone against sweat and stink?! What to do now? One possibility is buying some more but there are some potential problems with this depending on the person:

The deodorant might run out again.

Too lazy to physically go to the store to buy some.

Lack of memory to remember to buy some when present at the store.

The deodorant is expensive.

The store does not have the nice smelly deodorant you want, and you are picky.

The store only has antiperspirant deodorants, and you are overly concerned about the metals or other elements in the them.

No need for deodorant because of a overconfidence in the human body to produce nice smells—this usually does not last long though.

A lack of belief in the existence of deodorant—of course, this is foolish thinking.

What are things to do in place of deodorant if these problems are too big to overcome to buy more? Where here are some possibilities:

Put deodorant on your birthday or Christmas wish list—people might be more than willing to buy you some.

Have a shower morning and evening, and when you use the restroom, not only wash your hands but also your armpits. For those who never wash your hands, why do you even care about deodorant then? Also, please never shake my hand if that is the case.

Put on so much cologne that it is all everyone smells around you. Yes, they will be annoyed at you, but at least they do not smell your sweat and you do not have a bad stink—just a bad good stink.

Use any remnants left behind by the deodorant and hope for the best.

Avoid people and put up with your own stink.

Explain to people that you are using a new deodorant that only people with privileged noses can smell the deodorant and if you only smell stink, then your nose is not privileged and you should hide that fact in shame. Of course, this condones lying, which I do not recommend. However, it does not remove the fact that this is an option, but it will probably end poorly as most (if not all) lying does.

There are more possibilities for deodorant replacements, but I will leave those up to you. While writing this, a very kind person bought me some deodorant (and I did not even put it on my birthday or Christmas wish list), so I am going to lock up my deodorant so it does not run away again. Of course, I will use it first.

About Me

My
name is Jeremy Ham, and I am weird, which is good. Think about it: if
everyone was normal, it would be a bad place to live in!

I like spiders, but hate crickets. I like burned steak better than cold chop just like Curly Howard. I hate money. My favorite actor is Gonzo. Most of all, I love God and strive to put him first in all that I do. Also, my hometown is "under a tree"!